If you love high-concept science
fiction as much as I do, you've probably been frustrated by all those films and
TV series that promise to be really daring, but end up falling flat under the
trappings of what filmmakers often mistakenly assume science fiction to be all
about - over-elaborate production design, cheesy aliens of the week, etc.. But
it's even more frustrating to me when a film or series shows up with really
terrific potential, a good, high-concept idea and interesting characters... and
then completely fails to take advantage of any of them. That latter problem
describes Ultraviolet in a nutshell. This
6-episode British TV miniseries is such a cool missfire. Just as it really
starts to get going... it's over. There's no more. And that drives me absolutely
crazy.

Ultraviolet follows the efforts of a
top-secret British government team (known as CIB), who are working in the
shadows to prevent humanity from losing a war it, by and large, doesn't even
know it's fighting - a war against vampires. It seems that for centuries,
vampires and humans have coexisted peacefully on the Earth. You see, thanks to a
strange symbiosis, the vampires need us - we're their food source. But as the
20th century draws to a close, humans are destroying the biosphere at an
alarming rate, and Nature is fighting back with all kinds of viral epidemics -
AIDS, Ebola, TB - you name it. In other words, we're polluting the vampires'
food supply... and they're having none of it. The vampires have gotten a lot
more aggressive and they have a definite agenda. Only CIB is up to the challenge
of figuring out what they're up to before its too late for us all.

Into this mix comes a young police officer named Michael Colefield (played by
Jack Davenport). Colefield's best friend is "turned" by vampires on
the night before his wedding, and Jack's forced to kill him. The experience
leaves him shaken... and ripe for recruitment by CIB. But joining the fight has
a price - you've got to cut all ties to friends and family, lest they be "turned"
to work against you. So the ranks of CIB are filled with emotionally-damaged and
angst-ridden individuals who have all lost loved ones to the cause. In addition
to Colefield, there's Dr. Angie Marsh (Susannah Harker), an emotionally cold
Scully clone (ie: scientist) who uses her medical knowledge to figure out what
makes vampires tick. There's Vaughan Rice (Idris Elba), a Gulf War veteran who
lost all his squad mates to the leeches during the war and now lives for
revenge. And there's Father Pearse Harman (Philip Quast), a Catholic priest who
seems to be hiding more than he lets on, and who leads the fight against the
vampires in the name of God and out of a pure belief that vampires are
fundamentally Evil.

But are they really Evil? Or are they just as much a natural product of
evolution on Earth as we are, with every bit as much right to exist and fight
for their lives? That's one of the interesting questions raised in this series.
Unfortunately, that's all it is - a question raised. The morality is never
explored more fully. And that's the problem with this series as a whole -
NOTHING here is explored more fully. These 6 episodes are almost completely
plot-driven. None of these characters has much of an arc - they start off as
cold, emotionally-closed off people, and that's still what they are at the end
of the last episode. Given that they can't really have relationships with anyone
outside of CIB, you'd think their relationships with each other would be that
much more important. But don't expect that aspect of this story to be explored
either. You get little hints of deeper interaction between these characters, but
that's it. In fact, even the cover of this DVD is misleading. That's Michael and
Angie in the picture there, clearly meant to make us think of The
X-Files' dynamic between Mulder and Scully. But these two characters
hardly interact with each other at all in the series - they have maybe 3 or 4
scenes together.

In an audio interview on this DVD, series creator Joe Ahearne talks about why
Ultraviolet never went beyond 6 episodes.
He felt that the story and concept wouldn't sustain a lasting run on TV, and
because he wrote and directed all the episodes, he was too busy to think about
what might happen next. I submit that Ahearne either got really lucky in coming
up with this idea, really lacks imagination as a writer or is just not very
motivated. Make no mistake about it - Ultraviolet
is an extremely cool idea for a TV series, and it absolutely could sustain
several seasons' worth of episodes. There are countless plot threads here that
could be developed. In the few hours I spent with this DVD alone, my imagination
went into overdrive coming up with literally DOZENS of cool storylines, plot
directions and character arcs for this thing. The producers of this series
REALLY dropped the ball. Ultraviolet could
be every bit as cool and successful as The X-Files,
and every bit as complex and entertaining. But it really needs to be
reinvisioned from the ground up, by people with the imagination and passion to
do so. Hell... Todd and I could easily come up with a few dozen episodes' worth
of stories for this, all by ourselves. Seriously, we've got TONS of ideas -
someone give us a call! Anyway, I've already written WAY more than I intended
about Ultraviolet. But it just drives me
absolutely crazy to see so cool a concept so poorly explored. Shame on those who
left this series to gather dust.

This 2-disc set from Palm Pictures delivers all 6 episodes in very good video
quality, converted to NTSC from the original PAL masters. It's letterboxed at
about 1.66:1, but isn't anamorphic - too bad. Still, you don't lose much. The
video looks quite good. Ultraviolet is
dark and stylish in a bland, British TV kind of way (and I don't mean that as a
slam against British TV - just that the visual style here is every bit as
underdeveloped as the story). Colors are muted but accurate and the range of
contrast is generally excellent. The audio is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1
mix which is understated by atmospheric (2.0 sound is also provided). I
occasionally had to turn up the volume to make out what was being said, but as
often as not, that had more to do with the accents of the actors. A subtitle
track would have helped, but none is included.

Extras are limited and are all hidden as Easter eggs on these two discs. But if
you click left from the "The Prison" selection on the main menu of
each disc ("The Prison" being some extremely unimaginative way of
saying "Scene Selections"), you'll find character profiles, a glossary
of terms and the aforementioned audio interview with Ahearne (split over both
discs). It's not a lot, but whatever. This series doesn't give you a lot in
general, and if you want to enjoy what it does give you, that's the price you
have to pay.

So is Ultraviolet on DVD worth picking
up? Absolutely - especially if you can get it on sale. I enjoyed it a lot. Just
be prepared to be very frustrated with it. By the end of the last episode, I was
pulling my hair out over this series. As I said at the beginning of this review,
just as Ultraviolet starts getting good,
it's over. And that's a real shame.